Catherine Garson, Editor of the Corruption in Fragile States Blog
One of the purposes of the Corruption in Fragile States Blog is to cast light on challenging aspects of research, or to question commonly held assumptions, and to look at the practical implications for anti-corruption work in the field. Whether they are an opinion piece, showcasing new research, or a literature review, blogs are selected because they offer a fresh perspective or say something provocative. We want our readers to be challenged and to engage in stimulating conversation. We also want the practitioners among our readership to have something practical to take away after reading a blog.
The three blogs featured as the Best of 2024 achieve all these aims: they are a connected trio coming from an ongoing Besa Global project, with the research results due to come out in April or May 2025. The blogs look at corruption and gender, and corruption and faith through the lens of social norms. Social norms is a central pillar of Besa Global’s work and it has also been the focus of some of our guest authors. The social norms perspective is indeed gaining traction as an important way of understanding what factors may drive people in a particular social context to engage in corrupt behavior. The contexts are usually complex political, economic, social and cultural ecosystems where people may have multiple, shifting and sometimes competing identities and roles.
"Each blog asks challenging questions and offers useful suggestions for how the findings can inform anti-corruption programming."
The three blogs are vivid and accessible illustrations of this complexity. They ask challenging questions and offer useful suggestions for how the findings can inform anti-corruption programming.
Each blog asks a question
1. Are women less corrupt than men?
In ‘Gender Norms, Social Norms and Corruption’, Paul Bukuluki asks: “When fulfilling gender norms, do men and women have a different relationship with corruption?’ That sounds like a solid social-science research question. But the illustrations of the interconnections are what bring it to life. In the studies that the blog references, conducted mainly in Uganda and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people will tolerate and condone corruption if men and women are doing what is expected of them as men and women: “The fear of sanctions if they fail to perform these roles that define them as the ideal wife, mother, daughter or daughter-in-law, or husband, father or son-in-law—incentivizes them to pay bribes or bend the rules as they see fit". Indeed, “the means used (including corruption) to meet these expectations are less likely to be sanctioned than the failure to meet them.” And interestingly, while women are thought to be more ‘risk-averse’ than men, and therefore less likely to engage in corrupt behavior, this is not the case. They just go about it in a more covert way.
2. Does a person's faith stop them from behaving corruptly?
Moving on to faith and religion, the author of the second blog in the series, Aloysious Nnyombi, challenges the assumption that adhering to faith acts as a moral shield against corruption. “Research shows that there are cases where religiosity (defined here as the ‘intensity of adherence to religious promulgations’) can give corruption an acceptable face”, he says. Without wanting to oversimplify, this means that where part of religious adherence is a social and collective act, other factors trump sanctioning corruption if they work at keeping the social machine oiled. For example, it appears that in highly religious environments, there is less monitoring –– the group is more important than the individual and this favors collusive behavior, like corruption. "Even though religious teachings, values and norms explicitly prohibit and condemn corrupt behavior – and can be a motivation for resisting corruption – they are not automatically or unambiguously a force for integrous or ethical behavior." A new term that immediately came alive is the idea of the ‘prosperity gospel,’ preached in Pentecostal movements, where prosperity is actively seen to be evidence of holiness and spiritual reward. So ‘corrupt practices’ can actually be seen as a ‘blessing from the deity’.
3. How do anti-corruption practitioners work with the complexity of competing social norms?
In the final blog in the series, ‘Navigating the Complexity on Gender, Faith and Social Norms that Drive Corruption’ Diana Chigas does an excellent job at pulling this all together and asking the pertinent ‘where to now?’ questions to help practitioners devise more effective programs –– the ultimate aim of anti-corruption work. This is a challenge for which there are no easy answers. The terrain is complex because different norms compete with each other in fluid environments in which people must constantly make decisions driven by survival. The team’s research shows that: “Gender norms and religious norms can counteract pressures to engage in corrupt behaviors. But equally, they can reinforce social norms that drive corruption or block anti-corruption action.”
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Diana goes on to ask why we should care about how multiple identities influence norms driving corruption and she ventures some interesting answers. She reminds one that if the complex social contexts are not properly scrutinized and understood in all their nuances, anti-corruption interventions will miss the mark. This means huge amounts of time, money and resources will be wasted. In the current geopolitical and economic climate these are highly undesirable outcomes. So, the call is to pay attention.
What's in store for 2025 and beyond?
Social norms is one of the major topics of the Corruption in Fragile States Blog. Others are corruption as a system and corruption and peacebuilding, and the Blog has showcased important work and thinking in all these areas.
Indeed, with 150 blogs posted by more than 50 internal and guest authors to date, the Blog has earned its reputation as a respected thought leadership platform in the anti-corruption field. In 2024 it was read by over 6,000 people, and our readers come from over 130 different countries! It won’t be too long before we hit the 200 mark, celebrating more brilliant contributions from an expanding global network of authors and a continuously growing global readership.
Catherine Garson is an editorial consultant, advanced writing mentor, and communication coach. In all the services she offers, she helps people express themselves and their ideas with clarity and precision. She works with individuals and groups from organizations in the public and private sectors, and academia. Her list of top-notch clients includes international development organizations, think tanks, research institutes, and universities. In a career spanning over thirty years, she has acquired her high-level skills as a communication and language specialist through teaching and tutoring, writing and editing, and translating. Based in Madrid, she speaks Spanish and French. She also spends time in South Africa, her home country.